Some questions about NCM

[b.hofmann]

Hi all,

i have some questions about NCM.

Is this software running as standalone system, or must it integrated in LMS or another Application?

I found some minimum hardware requirement, but what is the maximum limit of devices which can be handled

with one NCM server, andd is there a document with recommended hardware for a specific number of devices?

What is the experience for you, what kind of operating system is better, Linux, Window or Solaris?

I personally would prefer Windows, but perhaps someone has seen problems which are in a  windows

installation.

Is this software able to run on more than one machine?

Regards

Berthold

[Jason Davis]

Hi Berthold, for full disclosure, I'm in the Cisco Services org (formerly Advanced Services), my team consults with customers on designs, implementation and optimization of CiscoWorks NCM (and our other NM products).

NCM can run as a standalone system.  If you have a smaller deployment (<4000 devices) you can use the embedded MySQL database.  This would be a one server deployment.

If you're running a larger deployment OR if you want High Availability (redudant databases that do replication), then you would go up to Oracle or MS SQL Server.  In that scenario you'd have 2 app servers and 2 database servers.  We've done engagements scaling up to 30k and we can do more.

There's another feature called 'Horizontal Scalability' that allows for multiple app servers to talk to single database servers.  This feature allows even more scalability, but it requires a thoughtful design process, especially if you're combining HA and HS.

I'm not sure of the maximum limit of devices, but I know of a customer up to 60k managed devices.

My platform preference is Linux, Solaris, then Windows.  However, it is equally supported on all.

It can also be run on VMware ESX if you want/need to virtualize Linux or Windows.

[b.hofmann]

Hi jadavis,

thank you for the detailed information. However i have still some questions.

What do you think about virtualisation, or do you think it is better to have

the software running on a standalone machine.

The advantage of virtualisation what i see is, that i can install a new software version

on the same machine, and can then switch between old and new version.

What´s about running on NAS systems, or is it better to have own disks for

the system.

Are there members from your group in germany, and are there workshops or

courses for the software available?

Best Regards

Berthold

[Jason Davis]

Re: virtualization

I think it's great.  However our partner that OEMs the product to us requires the end-user to double CPU and Memory for the same managed device count when using VMware virtualization.  [Don't shoot the messenger, please]

There are other benefits like snapshots.  So if you were to install a driver pack or hot-fix you could snapshot before the change - make the change, then see how things worked.  If it was not working as expected, you could roll back to the earlier snapshot.  It's a nice feature.

Re: NAS

This also requires some careful consideration.  If you have a lot of managed devices and do a lot of changes or run frequent diagnostics, then you're going to be hitting that database a lot.  So if your database/disk is 'remote' you have to think about things like - FiberChannel interface speed (1, 2, 4, 8 Gbps), raw IOPS, LUN sizing and RAID performance.  It's the same type of consideration you need to make for any app you put on a NAS.  I've had good success with it.

Re: Professional Services in Germany.

We do have a services group in Europe.  You can reach out to Jaime Garcia (jaimgarc@cisco.com) or operate-bdm@cisco.com to start discussions on scoping your requirements.

Re: Training

We also do offer training on the product.  Use the same email addresses above.